Each year over 1700 young Americans die in car collisions due to underage drinking.

In the hopes of ending binge drinking, the presidents of America’s top 100 colleges are attempting to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. Advocates of lowering the drinking age claim it will lower binge drinking, while opponents claim just the opposite. According to a 2007 Center for Disease Control and Prevention survey, over one in four teenage students binge drink.

Advocates claim that lowering the drinking age will remove temptation from underage drinking. This taboo behavior causes teenagers to over-indulge and binge drink as a form of rebellion or rite of passage.

America has had a history of battling alcohol consumption with the Prohibition during the early 20th century that paradoxically created more violent crime connected to drinking. Many American men from 18 to 21 years old are resentful for being old enough to go to war at 18, fight for two years, return home, and still be one year too young to share a beer with their war buddies.

“It’s cool, I think it will work but if it doesn’t work they should repeal it,” says Fresno City College student Matthew Alter, 17.

Opponents liken it to raising the speed limit; fast drivers statistically still drove five to ten miles per hour over the speed limit. According to opponents, instead of stopping binge drinking by ending temptation, lowering the drinking age will instead lead to more drunken 16 year-old drivers. Many claim that this is just an attempt to stop drinking on university campuses and actually has very little to do with the dilemma of underage drinking.